Demand for Fed coins crashes website

Roger Federer’s mug has appeared on pasta ads, car commercials, Rimowa billboards and soon it will be on actual Swiss coins. Switzerland’s federal mint announced yesterday that it will produce two sets of commemorative coins bearing the image of the 38-year old tennis champion. True to his reputation as the “the most marketable face in tennis,” pre-orders for the Roger Federer coins has been so high that the mint’s online shop is essentially crippled. “We have millions of clicks on our webshop, and because of that our shop is collapsing periodically,” Marius G. Haldimann, Swissmint’s general manager told Quartz. “We never thought that it [the surge of public interest] will be this big,” he added. The Federer coins can only be ordered online, unlike others issued by Swissmint, which can also be ordered by phone.                                                                                                                                           -- Agencies